XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a flexible way to generate common information formats and share both the format and the data on the World Wide Web, intranets, and elsewhere. XML is similar to hypertext markup language (HTML). Both XML and HTML include markup symbols to describe a file or page's contents. HTML describes the content in terms of how the content is displayed while XML describes the content in terms of what data is being described. Thus, an XML file can be processed purely as data by a program. Alternately, the XML file can be displayed or stored.